Experts Say

Whether you like it or not, the Nuclear Ban Treaty is here to stay: a reply to Brad Roberts

March 29, 2018
By Tom Sauer, Associate Professor in International Politics, Universiteit Antwerpen

In the provocatively titled piece “Ban the Bomb or Bomb the Ban” Brad Roberts adopts a highly defensive attitude towards the Humanitarian Initiative and the resulting Nuclear Ban Treaty. This is in line with other negative reactions by the nuclear armed states and their allies. Paradoxically, their message that the Ban Treaty is akin to the Briand-Kellogg Pact, the treaty that banned war and had no (or not much) effect, is belied by these aggressive critiques.